Brooklyn Today: Brooklyn Heights is shaking

September 11, 2019 Brooklyn Today

Brooklyn Heights’ Hotel Bossert will likely have a September soft opening. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

Brooklyn Heights’ Hotel Bossert. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

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THE LEDE: Good morning! Broken glasses, cracked walls and sleepless nights have become all too familiar for some families in Brooklyn Heights, who say vibrations from the nearby BQE have severely disrupted their lives. “At four in the morning, you’ll hear tremendous loud bangs and you’ll feel shaking,” said one neighborhood resident. “It’s like thunder.”

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THE RUNDOWN

~ CITY SCHOOLS TEST LATER START TIMES. POLS WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY’VE LEARNED: Public schools in Seattle recently found that delaying school start times led to better grades and fewer latenesses. Now, a group of NYC lawmakers is asking the Department of Education to emulate the idea, which they claim the agency has already tested through a tight-lipped pilot program.

~ BQE VIBRATIONS CREATE NIGHTMARE FOR BROOKLYN HEIGHTS RESIDENTS: When the Brooklyn Eagle visited two Brooklyn Heights homes on a recent morning, the vibrations were constant. It felt as if a subway train was periodically passing beneath the floors. Flowers vases shook. Water rippled in glasses.

~ ‘SAVE OUR TREES’ ADVOCATES HAVE THEIR DAY IN COURT: The city Parks Department is legally required to do an environmental impact study before destroying dozens of mature, healthy trees in Fort Greene Park and changing park features designed by famous landscape architects, a lawyer for the Sierra Club told a Manhattan judge on Tuesday.

~ SUNSET PARK COUNCILMAN TO ANNOUNCE STANCE ON INDUSTRY CITY EXPANSION: After roughly six months of community hearings, rallies and town halls, Councilmember Carlos Menchaca will announce on Monday where he stands on Industry City’s proposed rezoning, which may determine whether or not it will move forward, a spokesperson for his office confirmed to Crain’s.

~ THE GRANDEUR AND BEAUTY OF BROOKLYN’S CHURCH ORGANS, IN PHOTOS: Houses of worship are hard to miss on the streets of Brooklyn, the borough of churches. And within those hundreds of churches live hundreds of pipe organs, many dating back to the early 20th century.

~ CAN YOU PUT A PRICE ON A LIFE TAKEN BY GUN VIOLENCE? THAT’S THE $36M QUESTION.: At a City Council hearing Monday on gun violence, Donovan Richards — the councilmember who chairs the Committee on Public Safety — asked a yes-or-no question: is $36 million allocated by the city government to neighborhood anti-gun violence groups enough?

~ HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY THEORISTS MET WITH COOKIES AFTER CRASHING PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATE’S CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: A fringe group of Polish nationalists promoting a bizarre Holocaust conspiracy theory protested the City Council campaign launch of a Greenpoint resident who previously thwarted their activities. But instead of clashing with them, the candidate greeted them with chocolate butter cookies.

~ BROOKLYN DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP SAYS PROGRESSIVE AGENDA IS COSTING THE PARTY: The leader of one of the strongest Democratic party clubs in the nation is facing a financial shortfall due to a progressive push to turn down money from the real estate industry, leadership said at the club’s general meeting in Coney Island Monday.

~ TEMPORARY BRIDGE OPENS OVER GOWANUS EXPRESSWAY AT 79TH STREET: The reconstruction of the 79th Street overpass spanning the Gowanus Expressway reached a crucial phase on Tuesday with the opening of a temporary bridge that will keep traffic flowing smoothly while work is being done.

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to create 90 new homeless shelters, but several neighborhoods are strongly against them. (City Limits)

~ A new exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum will explore the legacy of iconic club Studio 54. (New York Post)

~ “The law was aimed at deadly machinery. It hit her washer.” (NYT)

~ Thomas Campanella’s new book, “Brooklyn: The Once and Future City,” explores the “unknown, overlooked and unheralded” corners of the borough. (Curbed)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: “How an elite university research center concealed its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein” (The New Yorker)

~ EAT: Here are the 22 best private dining rooms in New York City, including six spots in Brooklyn. (Eater)

~ CARTOON: You must be this tall to ride… (The New Yorker)

~ OPINION: Should students major in English in this day in age? (WSJ)

WHAT’S HAPPENING

8:30AM – 7:00PM — Screening of Wolfgang Staehle’s “2001” at Brooklyn Historical Society. Details.

6:30PM — My Name Is Mohammad at Recess. Details.

7:00PM – 10:00PM — Scientific Controversies No. 20: Minds and Machines at Pioneer Works. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY
In 1954, the Eagle reported, “Brooklyn escaped the full brunt of Hurricane Edna today as the storm raged up the Atlantic Coast. The hurricane was to pass east of the eastern tip of Long Island about midmorning, the Weather Bureau said.”

📔 IMPRINT
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon pose together on the September cover of Entertainment Weekly.

👑 ROYAL WATCH
“Revealed: Why Meghan and Harry are facing ‘very, very hard time‘ in relationship” (Daily Express)

🏀 SPORTS
Kevin Durant opens up about mental health and coming to Brooklyn. (WSJ)

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Kristy McNichol, Franz Beckenbauer, Harry Connick Jr., Virginia Madsen, Brian De Palma, Ludacris, Lola Falana, Taraji Henson, Donna Lopiano, Elizabeth Henstridge and John Hawkes!